IRIN-Asia Weekly Round-up 18 covering the period 30 April - 6 May 2005
CONTENTS:
AFGHANISTAN: Gruesome murder of three women a warning to aid workers
AFGHANISTAN: Woman executed for adultery
AFGHANISTAN: Investigation team reaches site of Baghlan ammunition explosion
AFGHANISTAN: Rally calls for protection of women following triple murder
AFGHANISTAN: Heavy rains bring flooding to centre and southwest
CENTRAL ASIA: Press freedom throughout region worsening
CENTRAL ASIA: Weekly news wrap
KYRGYZSTAN: Mailuu-Suu closely monitored following recent landslide
KYRGYZSTAN: Ethnic minorities say they face an uncertain future
NEPAL: Health campaigns a success despite ongoing conflict
PAKISTAN: Afghan census shows three million remain
PAKISTAN: Focus on the slow death of the River Ravi
PAKISTAN: Voice of the media not getting across say activists
PAKISTAN: Interview with Abdul Sattar Edhi
PAKISTAN: Number of street children on the rise
PAKISTAN: Outbreak of water-borne diseases in Sindh
PAKISTAN: Gas explosion highlights need to separate industry from homes
TURKMENISTAN: Clampdown on dissent continues says Amnesty
UZBEKISTAN: Southern demonstration barred after week of protests
AFGHANISTAN: Gruesome murder of three women a warning to aid workers
Female aid workers in Pul-e-Khumri city in Afghanistan's northeastern province of Baghlan have been advised to stay at home after three women were found hanged by the neck on Monday morning in the centre of the city. The bodies had a letter attached threatening women working for foreign aid organisations, according to local sources. One of the three was identified as being involved with the Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee (BRAC) and the second was a local civil servant. The third remains unidentified according to Baghlan deputy governor, Daulat Mohammad Rafee, who spoke to IRIN from Pul-e-Khumri on Tuesday.
Full report
AFGHANISTAN: Woman executed for adultery
It’s less than a week since the tiny Afghan village community witnessed the execution of 25-year-old Bibi Amena for adultery, but by Tuesday life appeared to have returned to normal. Bibi was sentenced to death by local religious leaders in the Spingul valley in the isolated northeastern province of Badakhshan. Her crime was to be found in the company of a man she was not married to.
Full report
AFGHANISTAN: Investigation team reaches site of Baghlan ammunition explosion
Investigators arrived in the northeastern province of Baghlan, one day after a massive explosion at an ammunition dump rocked the village of Bajga, killing at least 30 people and injuring 70 more. "A team composed of the local Red Crescent bodies and explosion investigators arrived in Bajga to assess the explosion and current emergency humanitarian needs," Baghlan deputy governor Daulat Mohammad Rafee told IRIN from the provincial capital Pul-e-Khumri, on Tuesday.
Full report
AFGHANISTAN: Rally calls for protection of women following triple murder
Several hundred women demonstrated on the streets of the Afghan capital, Kabul on Thursday, calling on the government to improve their security and to bring to justice those responsible for the deaths of five women over the past two weeks, three of them on Wednesday. “This is shocking that in just two weeks, five women have been brutally killed in separate incidents and the government and international community have kept silent,” Urzala Ashraf, one of the demonstrators and head of local NGO, Humanitarian Assistance for Women and Children of Afghanistan (HAWCA) told IRIN.
Full report
AFGHANISTAN: Heavy rains bring flooding to centre and southwest
Heavy rainfalls over the last few days in the central and southwestern parts of Afghanistan, has led to extensive flooding of agricultural land leading to loss of life and the killing of hundreds of animals, aid bodies said on Thursday. According to the United Nations in Kabul, the most recent flood took place in the southwestern Farah province. Reports from the department of rural rehabilitation and development in the province indicates that at least six people and 200 livestock are reported missing, after a flood in the Purchaman district of Farah on Wednesday.
Full report
CENTRAL ASIA: Press freedom throughout region worsening
The freedom of the press is continuing to deteriorate throughout much of Central Asia, with few signs of improvement in the region of 55 million inhabitants, according to Pascale Bonnamour, head of the European desk for Reporters Without Borders (RSF)."The level of press freedom in Central Asia is getting worse each year," she told IRIN speaking from Paris on Tuesday, World Press Freedom Day, citing recent geopolitical changes and events in the former Soviet Union over the past six months.
Full report
CENTRAL ASIA: Weekly news wrap
Press freedom was under pressure in Kazakhstan this week, with authorities ordering the closure of the independent weekly 'Respublika' newspaper. The move is seen by observers and rights activists as a crackdown ahead of presidential elections in December 2006. According to Reuters on Thursday, the opposition weekly was told by the Kazakh Culture, Information and Sports Ministry that the paper had been "liquidated" without giving a reason.
Full report
KYRGYZSTAN: Mailuu-Suu closely monitored following recent landslide
Emergency workers in Kyrgyzstan are monitoring potential landslide sights which pose a potential threat to nuclear waste dumps in and around the southern town of Mailuu-Suu. This follows a recent landslip which only just missed a radioactive dump. "The situation around Mailuu-Suu has stabilised and our specialists are constantly monitoring landslide-prone areas close to the uranium waste dumps on the ground," Emil Akmatov, a spokesman for the Kyrgyz emergency ministry, told IRIN on Tuesday from the capital, Bishkek.
Full report
KYRGYZSTAN: Ethnic minorities say they face an uncertain future
Ethnic minority groups in Kyrgyzstan are becoming increasingly concerned over July's presidential polls in the former Soviet republic, saying the election could become a major source of friction between north and south and between the Kyrgyz majority and other minority groups. “I am very anxious about the upcoming presidential elections," Nodira, a 42-year-old ethnic Uzbek woman from the northern Kyrgyz town of Tokmok, told IRIN in the capital, Bishkek, on Monday. She cited concerns over possible violence towards ethnic groups.
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NEPAL: Health campaigns a success despite ongoing conflict
Sabita Tharu is joyful as her 6-month-old daughter receives a vitamin A capsule from female health care volunteer (FCHV) Meena Thapa. “My daughter’s safe now,” Sabita told IRIN as she queued along with hundreds of other mothers at the health post in Hapur village in Dang district, nearly 400 km southwest of the Nepali capital, Kathmandu. “Until a few years ago, it used to be so difficult to convince the women to bring their children here for vitamin A supplements but now they come on their own,” Thapa told IRIN. Over 80,000 FCHVs like her operate in the remotest villages in rural areas.
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PAKISTAN: Afghan census shows three million remain
More than three million Afghan refugees are living in Pakistan, according to the results of the first ever census conducted earlier this year to count the number of Afghans nationwide, officials told a press briefing on Monday in the Pakistani capital, Islamabad. The national census was carried out by the government of Pakistan with financial and technical assistance from the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).
Full report
PAKISTAN: Focus on the slow death of the River Ravi
The River Ravi has wound its way through the western Pakistani city of Lahore for thousands of years. Yet on many days, the only living creatures seen by it are the kites that gracefully swoop down to collect chunks of meat, hurled by people standing on bridges spanning the river. The meat given to the birds is regarded as a religious ritual by many, just as feeding sparrows or ants are seen as deeds smiled upon by Allah (God). There is also a superstition that anyone feeding the kites and crows at the Ravi will receive good fortune. This brings many to the river and also attracts vendors selling chunks of meat who set up their stalls early every morning.
Full report
PAKISTAN: Voice of the media not getting across say activists
Media rights activists marking this year's World Press Freedom Day, have said that the media in Pakistan could be more of a vehicle for social change. "Media, electronic and press, have been highlighting lots of social and development issues. But, in most cases the information is falling on deaf ears, creating an impression of the media as a 'powerless' player," Owais Aslam Ali, secretary general of the Pakistan Press Foundation (PPF) told IRIN from the southern port city of Karachi.
Full report
PAKISTAN: Interview with Abdul Sattar Edhi
One of the most admired men in Pakistan, Abdul Sattar Edhi has made a career out of helping those in need. For over half a century, the foundation that bears his name, has been at the forefront of charity work in the South Asian nation. From humble beginnings in 1951, as a tiny dispensary in Karachi's downtrodden Mithadar neighbourhood, the Edhi Foundation has expanded into a national organisation.
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PAKISTAN: Number of street children on the rise
Living on the rough and tumble streets of Pakistan's port city of Karachi, 12-year-old Ashique knows all too well the harsh reality of life. "I'm not afraid. I sleep with my friends," says the dark-haired youth, who was abandoned by his parents. He told IRIN he dreams one day of attending school. But after five years on the street, despite putting on a brave face, prospects for this slender youth are poor.
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PAKISTAN: Outbreak of water-borne diseases in Sindh
An outbreak of water-borne diseases has been reported in central areas of Pakistan's southern province of Sindh caused by polluted domestic water supplies. Over 1,100 people with diarrhoea and other related problems have attended public health facilities in the last two weeks, a health official told IRIN. "At present, some 300, mostly children, are admitted in various hospitals, while others were discharged after treatment," Dr Masood Solangi, deputy director of the provincial health department, told IRIN from Hyderabad on Wednesday. "But the main cause, the polluted water supply, is outside the mandate of our health department.
Full report
PAKISTAN: Gas explosion highlights need to separate industry from homes
Several ruptured gas cylinders poke out of the grey rubble which is all that remains of a three-storey residential block in the eastern Pakistani city of Lahore. The building collapsed after a gas explosion early on Tuesday, killing at least 32 people as they slept. The incident is the latest in a series involving the commercial use of premises in residential areas that have killed many people in the past five years.
Full report
TURKMENISTAN: Clampdown on dissent continues says Amnesty
A new report by Amnesty International (AI) has strongly criticised the government of Turkmen President Saparmurat Niyazov for failing to adequately address the ongoing issue of human rights. "The report documents that the human rights situation in Turkmenistan remains appalling," Anna Sunder-Plassman, a researcher for the watchdog group, told IRIN on Tuesday from London. An alleged assassination attempt on Niyazov in November 2002, known as Turkmenbashi or father of the Turkmen people, triggered one of the worst waves of repression. The report says that the clampdown has continued unabated since then, explained Sunder-Plassman.
Full report
UZBEKISTAN: Southern demonstration barred after week of protests
Women who participated in demonstrations that shook the Uzbek capital, Tashkent, this week, were prevented by authorities from marching on a regional centre in southern Uzbekistan, protestors said on Friday. "We were planning to march to the administrative centre of the [Kashkardarya] region demanding the release of our men who were arrested in Tashkent after police broke up our protest outside the US embassy," Zulayho Charieva, 29, told IRIN. "But all women were taken away to the police office on Thursday morning and kept for a whole day," she added.
Full report
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